The Environmental Action Team, a year in review
By Lewis Anderson ‘24
Photo of wildflower planting below the CAC, courtesy of Megan McLain
In 2023, the Environmental Action Team (EAT) expanded its achievements: it created a new position on the Catlin Gabel Student Administration (CGSA), the Sustainability Coordinator, is pushing for energy efficiency, is working on updating the sustainable purchasing policy, ran a clothing drive, and is working on increasing biodiversity around campus.
Sustainability Coordinator and sustainable purchasing policy
Before the creation of the Sustainability Coordinator, there was not a position on the CGSA that dealt with sustainability issues.
The Sustainability Coordinator was added to the CGSA, with the hope it “improves the choices made by putting someone deeply engaged with issues of the environment at the table as the CGSA is making decisions,” said Patrick Walsh, a faculty advisor for the EAT.
The current sustainability coordinator is Luna Flores ’26, who was elected by the EAT this fall into a nonvoting role.
In the spring, three candidates will be nominated by the EAT, and one of these candidates will be elected by the student body in a general election, becoming the new sustainability coordinator and a voting member of the CGSA.
To be eligible to run, you must have been an active member of the EAT for at least a year, and have the nomination of two other EAT members.
This is to ensure that the sustainability coordinator is dedicated to sustainability and that the student body gets a say in all the positions on the CGSA.
“One of the incentives for bringing in a sustainability coordinator to the CGSA is so that we have a greater level of awareness of our purchasing habits and to move … towards sustainability because right now we are not,” said the dean of students, John Harnetiaux.
“We try to reuse everything we can,” said John DiLorenzo, the president of the CGSA, when reached for comment. However, “Certain things there aren’t any alternatives for that will fit in our budget, … unfortunately the school does not give us the funds to account for the sustainability efforts.”
The Sustainability Coordinator’s duties include: promoting sustainability in anything that the CGSA is part of, coordinating between the EAT and the CGSA to enhance sustainability efforts, working to plan division-wide events with the community engagement coordinator, and coordinating between the EAT, operations, and facilities to promote sustainability.
In addition to the sustainability coordinator, the EAT has been working on updating the sustainable purchasing policy which helps Catlin to order materials from sustainable sources.
The EAT reached out to teachers to see what they order the most of, and is working to find sustainable options for those products.
Biodiversity
Even while the EAT has been working with the CGSA to make it and its clubs more sustainable, it has also been working on other projects, including increasing biodiversity.
It has been planting wildflowers at the bottom of the Creative Arts Center, and it has a test patch of native grasses and wildflowers in the field behind the lower school. Additionally, the EAT is working on building a pollinator guardian behind the lower school.
“The goal is to increase biodiversity for the native pollinators that live here, in the forest … and a more biodiverse ecosystem means it is more resilient to environmental changes,” said Megan McLain, an upper school science teacher and faculty advisor of the EAT.
This has major benefits, as pollinators are in global decline and critical for the food supply. If native grasses were adopted more widely, it would almost eliminate the need for watering and mowing to maintain the grass.
In a written statement, Kitty Firth, the Director of Facilities, said that “Adaptations, such as pollinator gardens, native groundcovers and grasses, and wildflower meadows are already being made where appropriate … and when in the budget.”
Energy use
Additionally, the EAT has been working on energy efficiency at Catlin Gabel School (CGS). In the spring of 2023, the EAT brought in an energy auditor from the Oregon Energy Trust who found that CGS is using 1.2 million kilowatt hours of energy per year.
To put this in perspective, the typical American home uses 7200 kilowatt hours of energy a year. This means that Catlin uses the energy of about 167 homes every year.
The EAT identified the most immediately actionable steps as turning off lights, closing doors, and lowering the thermostat.
This year, CGS has joined the strategic energy management program with the Oregon Energy Trust, hoping to eliminate “low-hanging fruit” to reduce its energy use.
When asked what the EAT needed the most heading into 2024, to continue working on these and many other projects is “more members,” Walsh said.
I am a member of EAT, and while I attempted to avoid bias, there may still be some in this article.
A full list of what EAT did in 2023 can be found here.